I’ve described the basic framework for Echelon character and monster development, but haven’t done much to describe the talents that go into the slots. I will be doing a series of articles describing various character facets such as combat, spellcasting, and skill use. I’ll start with some martial talents since …
Echelon is derived from D&D 3.x and tries to address problems experienced or described with that edition. Some elements are drawn from D&D 4e, but this game is an evolution of 3.x. The rules of play are much as they were, unless specifically changed, and the same ability scores and …
Echelon is my name for my next version of d20, so named in part because I am trying to remember to be conscious of the varying levels of power experienced through the levels. In my design of Echelon I am trying to address many of the failures of D&D described …
This is likely to take several articles, as the first one or two are going to be somewhat vague as I try to find the shape of things. This is in part because they appear to be under-CRed compared to other monster types. Draconic Hit Dice are better than most …
The first monster I tried updating, Frost Giant, seemed to do well with this scheme. Let’s try something a little more ambitious. The babau is described as being a sneaky, sly being, and it is suggested that it likes working from ambush (with the sneak attacks and multiple attacks, I …
Years ago a friend summarized some hero design guidelines for me. Three of the key ones were There is also an implicit ‘have a reason to be involved’, but that is perhaps more looking to campaign setting or background rather than the mechanical implementation. In this context it might be …
I remember posting a bit about this to rec.games.frp.dnd, but don’t remember if I included the bits about weapon reach. This article is a first cut of recapturing that post, with some additional information. The rules are generally complete, but some of the weapon modeling needs some adjustment. The model …
Down to the last set of failures, and can’t say that they are necessarily serious problems for everyone. However, I have seen complaints about them a number of times, so I’ll do what I can to describe them. These are things where reasonable applications of the rules lead to possibly …
I’ve described perhaps the biggest systemic problems, now for a few things relating to application of the rules. These points aren’t as critical to game balance, but certainly detract from the game experience. Preparation time and complexity, temporary changes, and figuring out just how powerful something is can all be …
I think I’ll start my ‘Thing a Day’ series with a description of why and how I think D&D fails. This is likely to be a work in progress, the points below are more or less off the top of my head. I’ve been playing RPGs for almost thirty years, …